watch for modifying reservations
 

I'm ticked. I wanted to take a paying reservation from 7 nights to 4 nights because I had booked 3 of the nights separately as a reward stay at a different time.

When I called today, the rep said oh the room rate had gone up so when "modifying" to the 4 nights instead of 7 that I would be paying $351 per night instead of the $256 that I booked with in November 2009. :confused: Why can't we just drop the 3 nights?

I know for a fact I could have booked the 4 nights for the $256 each night back in November - it wasn't a special rate just for booking for a week. This had nothing to do with it even though the rep alluded something to this effect. I told her this was inaccurate.

This is so not right. I think I'm going to cancel the whole vacation at this Hilton and book another resort. Just.Not.Right.

Frequent annoyance, but virtually always resolved by a call directly to the property. If that doesn't work, try the usual DD process of calling until you get the action you want.

I had something similar happen when reserving at the Hilton Garden Inn in Ithaca, NY. I reserved for 4 nights with a government rate originally. When my husband had the offer from the university to put us up in their property for 2 nights of our stay, I called the HGI directly to request 2 fewer nights on the reservation. The hotel would no longer honor the government rate, stating that it had to be for 4 nights. I contacted Hilton about this and they stood by the property. I chose not to stay at the HGI due to this policy and took our payment elsewhere.

What is disappointing is that they probably made more money off of the situation as it turned out.

They're taking advantage of the situation because it's Easter week - biggest week of the whole year for Clearwater Beach, Florida. They've really ticked off a good customer. Too bad they don't care. :(

An alternative
 

I did this in the past:

I prepaid for a reservation for 6 days. Then instead of changing or modifying the reservation, I checked in. Then on the 4th day, I went down to the front desk with my luggage in hand and asked them politely if I could check out ahead of schedule and they could process a refund for the remaining part of the reservation.
They processed it without asking any questions. I have done this twice in the past.

It's the first 3 nights that need to be dropped. That's when I have my reward nights booked.

If I wanted to stay there now (which I really don't), I would probably forget the 3 reward nights (using the point system from '09 and before) and just pay for the 7 nights at the lower per night rate. The whole situation just has me upset. I have other options than having Hilton hold me hostage.

just call the hotel directly....they should be able to help you out....